


Wind in Our Sails

by ScribeWire



Series: New Voyage [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alive Sabo (One Piece), Minor Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks/Makino, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25151548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribeWire/pseuds/ScribeWire
Summary: Shanks returns to Dawn Island and is shocked to find that Makino and Luffy have left. Concerned for them, he tracks them across the East Blue. But who are the two other boys? Why is he surprised that Luffy has stirred up trouble? Well, guess he’ll just have to hang around for a while to make sure they’re okay.
Relationships: Makino & Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo
Series: New Voyage [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1820035
Comments: 16
Kudos: 317





	Wind in Our Sails

**Author's Note:**

> This is both longer and shorter than I expected it to be. Does that make sense? 
> 
> Please enjoy!

Shanks has always liked the East Blue. He isn’t from the sea, but his Captain was. He doesn’t need another reason to like it.

Buggy haunts East Blue, too. It’s not just him.

(He steadfastly ignores his crews teasing about a barmaid and a little rubber boy).

When you know where to look, East Blue can be a treasure trove. No one thinks anything of value can be hidden somewhere so weak. But, Shanks thinks, of course you won’t find something if you don’t bother to look for it.

He wasn’t planning to visit East Blue **_or_** Dawn Island again so soon after he left last time but can’t ignore the draw so, he just gives in. What’s the point of being a Yonko if he can’t go wherever he pleases whenever it pleases him?

There is no one at the docks to greet them.

The visit is unexpected, and they had all been hoping to make it a surprise, but it is unusual for them not to be greeted at all. There are a few fishermen unloading their boats that look at them in shock, but there is no one else. No little boy literally bouncing in place. No young woman watching the boy even as she offers the crew a smile. No grumpy mayor.

That is concerning.

Finding the bar has been remodeled and is no longer Makino’s is more concerning.

A burly bandit with long, curly, red hair informs him the barmaid left the island over a year ago. She took Luffy with her. The bandit owns the bar now.

They don’t stay.

No one bothers to tease anyone about the proof that they were only visiting for those two people. Makino had felt the island was too dangerous for her and the little boy to stay and left.

The East Blue is often ridiculed as the weakest of the seas, but there are still plenty of dangers in it. Makino is neither a sailor nor a pirate and Luffy is an anchor. Shanks **_has_** to find them.

He doesn’t know where they would go. What island they would settle on. But he has been a pirate for a long time and has hunted down people better trained in hiding their tracks.

They bounce from island to island as they follow rumors of a woman with three rowdy boys that only ever seem to listen to her. Boys capable of amazing feats and the woman who wrangles them like it is nothing.

(He is confused about the mention of three boys instead of just one but follows them anyway. If this is not Makino, there are no other signs to follow).

It is all fun and games until suddenly it isn’t. The rumors dry up as people begin to give them suspicious looks and hold their tongues.

A boy with green hair actually tries to take Shanks out at the knees for asking about the group. The man running the dojo is equally tight-lipped.

They have better luck in Syrup Village despite Yasopp’s reticence to return.

Shanks pretends he doesn’t see the man’s breakdown when his son runs up to him and greets him enthusiastically. Usopp is more than willing to tell them all about the little group that came to visit several months ago.

The boys are his friends, and Luffy writes him letters.

Makino saved Banchina’s life.

He doesn’t argue when Yasopp tries to get the two to come with him. Banchina refuses. Usopp may go to sea when he is 17, and not any sooner.

Usopp tells him he’s going to join Luffy’s crew, so he’s sorry but he can’t go with them. He already has a Captain.

They bounce between islands for several more weeks before they get word of a terrifying tale.

Arlong is in East Blue.

And he’s occupying an island in the direction the rumor mill is taking them.

Except, there are no fishmen there when they arrive. They hear an impossible tale about a woman facing down the fishman and not just walking away, but successfully driving him off the island.

A little girl with bright orange hair, who had been a witness to this, steps forwards and asks if he is Akagami no Shanks.

He is.

This impresses the townspeople even more, but not because they are in the presence of a Yonko. The woman, **_Makino_** , had threatened Arlong with his name.

And here he is.

They point him in the direction Makino and the three boys – yes, **_three_** – had sailed in, but they don’t know what their heading is.

It’s luck that they find them only one island over.

The island is small and practically deserted. Practically, because there is only one small fishing boat there and no signs of permanent housing.

They are greeted on the beach by two young boys, a blond and brunette, who don’t look intimidated in the least beyond the fact that they’re facing adults.

(There is something about the brunette the that makes him take a second look; a sort of familiarity despite the surety that he has never seen this boy before).

“Are you boys alone on this island?” Shanks asks because he does not want to assume. Does not know why Makino would have three boys with her.

He takes a second look at the brunette wondering if perhaps he is Makino’s child that she never mentioned. But, no, he does not look like her. He is strangely familiar, but he does not look like Makino.

In hindsight, he can admit that there was probably a much better way to ask the boys about who they’re travelling with. Now they think he’s a kidnapper. Though they narrow their eyes to give away their thoughts, they do not flinch or run or scream.

“Get lost, old man!” the brunette snarls. He does not answer Shanks’ question.

“Ace!” a gentle voice calls from what sounds like inside the boat, though there is a clear scolding tone to it.

The change in the two boys is immediate. Where there was anger and arrogance and a promise of a fight if the men pushed them, there is now wide-eyed fear and alarm. Faster than any of them expect, the boys are both back on the boat. The blond is dashing around as if he means to set sail – he must know that that small boat stands no chance of outrunning _Red Force_ – while the brunette blocks a doorway and calls down inside. Shanks can’t quite make out his words, but his body language makes it clear that he’s arguing with someone.

Now he feels bad about approaching the brats.

“Makino, please stay inside!” finally carries over from the conversation and Shanks can’t help his sigh of relief. He’s found her. She is safe. Which means….

It doesn’t take much for him to jump onto the boat. The blond calls out a warning even as he rushes across the small deck to help. The brunette turns and plants himself firmly. The message is clear. If Shanks wants to go below deck, he will be going through the boy. He raises his brows in amusement but stays where he’s landed.

“Oy! Makino! Luffy! You’re usually there to greet me at the docks! And after I came all this way to see you!” he yells so his voice will carry. The two boys on deck with him freeze at his words. Someone from his crew mimics the sound of a cracking whip. He ignores them.

Makino must have been at or on the steps leading into the ship because she pokes her head out curiously after only a few seconds. She smiles at him but does not get a chance to reply before there is a loud crash, and she is forced to dodge.

Luffy comes barreling out from the hull like a wrecking ball. He successfully takes out the older brunette in his haste and they both roll into Shanks’ legs.

“SHANKS!” Luffy screeches. Shanks can only laugh.

“Anchor!” he calls back. He deftly untangles Luffy’s rubber limbs from the other boy and hoists him up.

Shanks is happy to play translator for Luffy as he tells the story of how they met over dinner. The other two boys remain suspicious but, with Makino’s reassurance, don’t try to rip Luffy away from him. It’s adorable, really.

Makino spends most of dinner scolding Yasopp and doesn’t believe the man that he’s already been to see his son until Ben steps in.

Before Shanks knows it, he’s been on the little island with the group for a week.

The smaller group had looped around back to the deserted island a few days after they left Cocoyashi Village because Luffy had gotten sick, and Makino can’t sail the boat and care for Luffy at the same time.

His brothers had tried to care for the youngest but just didn’t know what they were doing. Makino has been teaching the older two how to sail the boat since then.

When Makino is sure that Luffy has completely recovered – Shanks had his doctor check the boy over, but Makino wasn’t so easily reassured – _Red Force_ follows them.

Shanks doesn’t keep territories like the other Yonko. It’s probably why the World Government hates him so much. They can’t threaten his islands. The other Yonko can’t either, which is mostly the point.

He **_does_** have places he visits frequently and doesn’t take too kindly to being messed with. But they are not territories. He isn’t going to risk sacrificing a member of his crew if he can’t guarantee they’ll all make it out alive.

(Whitebeard is the only one who does that though, he supposes. Big Mom just extorts hers and only protects them because she gets touchy about people taking what she considers as hers. Much like a toddler throwing a tantrum).

As he sails East Blue with the little family, he realizes that he has unintentionally staked a claim on not just an island, but an entire ocean.

East Blue is his now.

Shanks doubts Makino and the boys will stay in the Weakest Sea forever, and he will protect wherever they are, but he knows that both Luffy and Makino would be upset if something were to happy here. So, for them, Shanks will stake his claim.

He just won’t tell anyone about it.

He’s always liked surprises.

(He let’s Buggy know of his plans. Asks his former crewmate to keep an eye on things for him. Buggy complains, of course, but Shanks knows there is no better spy than someone underestimated. And Buggy underestimates himself).

Shanks knows Makino will take the boys out of East Blue eventually, so he offers to train them. He wants to make sure they can handle themselves in a stronger sea.

It takes him 3 years because he cannot spend all of his time in East Blue. He is still a Yonko. But by the time Ace and Sabo are 14 and Luffy is 11, he’s satisfied they can handle most of what will be thrown at them.

Makino isn’t letting them leave until they’re 17 anyway, so they have time yet to hone their skills.

Makino is far more terrifying now than she ever was before, and Shanks regrets including her in the training, just a bit.

The last thing he does before they part ways, is teach them how to move between the seas.

(Learning that their little boat is made of Adam’s Wood was a shock. Learning the wood was harvested from trees on an island in East Blue even more so. The world had everyone believing there was only one source. One very expensive source. Yet another hidden treasure).

He gives them a baby dendenmushi to use in emergencies, and then finally departs.

He mopes for weeks before Ben finally reminds him that nothing is stopping him from visiting them from time to time, so long as they’re discrete about it.

(It isn’t until he sees Ace’s first bounty poster several years later that he realizes why the boy has always looked so familiar. Ben calls him an idiot.)

**Author's Note:**

> As always, please let me know what you do and don't like, and why! Constructive criticism is always appreciated.


End file.
